SAINT LEO, Fla.— The Colorado Mesa University Maverick men's lacrosse team saved their best for last on their 3-game swing through Florida, exploding for a season-high 21 goals in a 7-goal, 21-14 victory over the Saint Leo University Lions in a battle of nationally-ranked teams on Thursday night here at the Lions' University Turf Stadium.
 
The 17th-ranked Mavericks used a trio of 4-0 runs and played with the lead for the final 50 minutes while improving to 5-2 overall while salvaging a win from the trip that started with a loss at Florida Southern on Saturday night and a closing-seconds heart-breaker at Florida Tech on Tuesday.
 
SLU, ranked 13th in the latest national poll, fell to 6-2 after starting the year 5-0.
 
In Thursday's match-up Logan Smith led a group of 11 Maverick goal scorers with four tallies while JJ Brummett and Connor Jensen both added hat tricks as well.  Erich Petersen, Dillon Pless and Carson Points all scored two goals as well in the victory.
 
Smith also added an assist to finish with five total points while Petersen had two assists to record four.  Brummett and Jensen also added assists to finish with four points.  Brummett took 11 and put seven on net while Jensen was also active with eight total shots.  Smith scored on all but one of his five and matched his career-high for both goals and points on Thursday.
 
The Mavs won 23 of the 39 face-offs and finished with a 48-32 total advantage in total shots.

Mike Edwards won 15 of his 25 face-offs while Kanyan Rhodes won 8 of 11.  Both finished with six groundballs, helping lead CMU to a 37-30 edge in the possession battles.

Maverick net-minder Shaden Shields, a Naples, Florida native, finished with nine saves and went the distance to record his fifth win.
 
The Lions had early 1-0 and 2-1 leads before Ethan Points tied the goal-scoring frenzy at 2, less than four minutes into the game.
 
Nik Moore, Caden Hathaway and Brummett then scored goals over the next 5:06 as the Mavericks used their first 4-0 run to build a 5-2 lead.
 
The Lions then answered with two goals of their own to pull within 5-4 before another 4-0 Maverick spurt over 3:25 around the quarter break gave the Mavs a 13-4 cushion.
 
The goal-scoring pace, which saw 11 first quarter and ten total goals in the second quarter continued as the Mavs took a 13-8 lead into the intermission on goals by Caleb Schreiber and Jensen.
 
The Mavs then maintained their lead and led 18-12 at the end of the third quarter before Smith scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter, spread by more than five minutes, to give CMU a 2-12 lead.

Petersen then registered a man-up goal just 40 seconds later to complete the Maverick goal-scoring effort although the Lions recorded two consolation goals over the final 5:03.
 
The Lions converted on all five of their extra-man opportunities and received a monster game from Aidan Knoetgen, who had four goals and four assists throughout the night.
 
Drew Wheeler made eight saves in the losing effort.
 
The Mavericks have played all seven of their games on the road thus far, but will now return home for the first time in 2025 to resume Rocky Mountain Divisional play against Concordia University Irvine next Friday (Mar. 28) at 4 p.m.
 
The Mavs, who have a 2-0 divisional record, began the season with a 13-8 win over the Golden Eagles on Feb. 15 in San Rafael, California and won the 2024 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament title over them at home.  CUI is 4-5 overall and 3-1 in divisional games after beating Westminster at home on Wednesday night.